Nothing scary or difficult ever happens. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Though the pace is a little too consciously measured at times, and there is a certain sameyness about the arrangements, it's a record that, given time, yields up great rewards. [Nov 2002, p.100]

Their poppiest album to date. [Feb 2003, p.107]

Groove Armada continue to have mislaid that sparkledust. [Dec 2002, p.105]

[His] new-found security has enabled Weller to refine his art in the manner of Travis and all those accused of making the same record over and over again. [Oct 2002, p.113]

Jigga may have the edge right now, but on this evidence Nas looks the better bet in the long run. [Mar 2003, p.112]

It works... stretching rap into weird new shapes. [Feb 2003, p.97]

There's nothing as wonderfully warm as My Love Is Your Love, as grandstanding as Exhale (Shoop Shoop), or as innovative as Its Not Right But Its OK. [Feb 2003, p.104]

She has a fine technical voice but the emotional resonance of a car park. [Feb 2003, p.98]

On the down side, it's a record that fails to keep pace. [Aug 2002, p.133]

When it works, it's exhilarating, but elsewhere the poor lamb sounds a touch jaded. [Feb 2003, p.96]

A mess. [Feb 2003, p.107]

It is their way with a collaborator, though, that sets them apart. [Feb 2003, p.97]

Solid rather than spectacular. [June 2002, p.110]

Throughout, the bouncy enthusiasm of old has become heavier, louder, faster and stronger. [Jan 2003, p.113]

Whatever it lacks in cohesive identity it more than makes up for in chaotic invention. [Feb 2003, p.107]

About as well-rounded and polished as albums get. [Dec 2002, p.100]

Pippen's lush tones are again a good foil for Defever's haunting music. [Oct 2002, p.109]

Despite a late lapse into mediocrity, the good here far outshines the bland. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Whey-faced romantics in black clothing should form a queue. [Aug 2002, p.131]

Revitalises originals such as Hejira and For The Roses while staying faithful to them. [Jan 2003, p.120]

It really is hard to distinguish between the eight tracks here, but when a theme's this good, the variants are never going to be a problem. [Mar 2003, p.113]

When songs hit their mark, his latest incarnation squares up impressively to his Stateside heroes. [Dec 2002, p.97]

There's little sign of obvious hits. [Feb 2003, p.104]

It's big and it's clever.

Initially arresting, after a while it gets claustrophobic, leaving the listener punch-drunk and weary. [Jan 2003, p.111]

Sonically, his second solo effort is dry and unimaginative. [Feb 2003, p.97]

A remarkable record. [Feb 2003, p.96]

Stuff with hooks, freakishly frisky and using everything in the producer's cupboard... Up! contains 19 new tunes that play shamelessly to the gallery. [Feb 2003, p.109]

Mostly it's too laboured to uplift. [Apr 2003, p.109]

A proper, reggae-tinged rock album. [Jun 2003, p.104]

An adult rock record in which nuance succeeds over bombast. [Dec 2002, p.108]

Middle-age is no excuse for such an unforgivably bland collection of over-emoted love songs. [Dec 2002, p.102]

Fortunately, Elliott and Timbaland's idea of old school is rather unorthodox. [Jan 2003, p.121]

Eclipsing last year's Blueprint, it throws down the gauntlet to challengers Murder Inc. [Jan 2003, p.120]

Though not what Lopes or TLC will be remembered for, it's a solid effort. [Jan 2003, p.124]

They make a noise disquietingly similar to The Dandy Warhols, only without the wit or the tunes. [Apr 2003, p.114]

So is it White Ladder II? In a word, "yes." [Nov 2002, p.94]

Fine for the dancefloor, less so the sofa. [Dec 2002, p.112]

A startling fusion of ethereal singing with churning, computer-generated beats and ambience. [June 2002, p.110]

The only top notch effort is the title track--Cash's first composition for years and among the best he's ever written. [Jan 2003, p.114]

Finds Gough at his most stylistically promiscuous to date. [Nov 2002, p.102]

All a bit silly, but actually quite good. [Apr 2003, p.104]

He's an even limper pastiche of [Michael] Jackson than Jackson himself. [Jan 2003, p.123]

Jakob Dylan shakes off dad's shadow to make music that sounds like... Tom Petty. [Feb 2003, p.109]

The usual barrage of angry cello instrumentals. [Dec 2002, p.103]

A masterpiece of bombed orchestral elegance, at once expansive and intense. [Dec 2002, p.112]

The attentions of trendsetting producer Dave Kelly ensure the music is tight where it matters. [Dec 2002, p.112]

They've unfortunately discovered dance music several years too late. [Dec 2002, p.112]

This is an album which manages the rare trick of being accessible and head-warpingly barmy both at the same time. [Nov 2002, p.96]

The music here only rarely matches up. [Nov 2002, p.96]

Sadly, bra-burning rhetoric and gospel warbling make poor substitutes for addictive songs, and nothing here rivals her previous best, Genie In A Bottle. [Jan 2003, p.112]

Only the relatively jolly Escape Song is worth excavating from the morass. [Nov 2002, p.97]

Why didn't they just call it Supernatural II and have done with it? [Dec 2002, p.110]

Finisterre distills their Mellotrons, strummed guitars and electronic beats to a fine essence. [Oct 2002, p.114]

The drab orchestrations offer tepid schmaltz, not romance. [Dec 2002, p.112]

Some rubbishy funk aside, Robinson sounds more energised than he has in ages. [Nov 2002, p.113]

While One By One starts like the best Foo Fighters album ever it doesn't deliver track-upon-track. [Nov 2002, p.110]

Their best yet. [May 2003, p.102]

The odd portentous lapse and minor clunker aside, the rate of killer lines is remarkably high. [Mar 2002, p.115]

It's claustrophobic, neurotic and occasionally nightmarish. [Jan 2003, p.119]

The tunes are serviceable, if hardly Fast Car. [Dec 2002, p.102]

Without a single piece of filler here, this is the musical equivalent of meeting a stranger you feel you've known all your life. [Nov 2001, p.128]

10 unfortunately remains mired in irrelevance. [Jan 2003, p.120]

No longer ahead of his time, he has a deft enough touch to keep irrelevance at bay. [Jan 2003, p.120]

It's about as vibrant and sweat-streaked as mainstream pop gets. [Dec 2002, p.105]

A fantastically overwrought and indulgent yet also controlled exercise in emotive guitar rock. [Nov 2002, p.103]

More summery than a sombrero and probably just as unfashionable. [Sep 2003, p.112]

It's great, with well-judged strings and horns giving full rein to some marvellously acute lyrics.... A glorious return. [Oct 2002, p.117]

The perfect soundtrack to a hazy autumn evening. [Nov 2002, p.96]

Admirably fresh, but perhaps too long. [December 2002, p.97]

The results, while respectfully chocolate box pretty, make Enya seem like a bomb-making radical. [Nov 2002, p.109]

Like Moon Safari-era Air, unleashes shimmering, cinematic musical waves that gently wash over you but eventually suck you in entirely. [Nov 2002, p.113]

By the half-hour's end you might well consider strangling the singer but, by that time, these tunes will have launched their own potent psychological counterblast. [Apr 2003, p.109]

Adds a touch of wistfulness to his usually slurred vocals. [Nov 2002, p.106]

Bounce is the sound of a group who know what they're good at and why. [Nov 2002, p.97]

Admittedly, her FM-friendly singalongs aren't rocket science, just fantastically effective. [May 2003, p.109]

Lovable, albeit irritatingly so.

Despite the odd bump Sexsmith could be in business at last. [Dec 2002, p.111]

If there's a weakness, it's that the fulid, four-MC set-up masks a lack of lyrical depth.

Features typically fragile thumbnail sketches like New Haven Comet. [Feb 2003, p.105]

Petty sounds like a bitter old man howling at the moon. [Dec 2002, p.110]

Settles for inoffensiveness rather than innovation. [Oct 2002, p.118]

Rather good fun. [Nov 2002, p.116]

Hardly exciting, but it is terrifyingly professional. [Dec 2002, p.110]

At times slightly overdone, but on the whole enormous fun. [Jul 2003, p.111]

Dig deeper, and you'll find rich arrangements more reminiscent of Knopfler's soundtrack work. [Oct 2002, p.110]

The faithful will be overjoyed: despite the optimistic title there's nothing new here, only a distillation of trace elements from previous outings. [Oct 2002, p.106]

This is witty English guitar rock of the highest calibre. [Nov 2002, p.114]

Once you've let it grow on you, Sea Change is largely so lovely that you'll forgive him. [Oct 2002, p.98]

Gabriel is mesmerising, his plaintive rasp never more gorgeous. [Oct 2002, p.107]

An acquired taste. [Mar 2003, p.109]

[Her] penchant for pretension remains irksome: the dot in her name, the cringey album title, the worthy lyrics and constant namechecking of soul greats. [December 2002, p.96]

The impression is of a group who have got too good at sounding like themselves. [Oct 2002, p.110]

Most of the music here finds Earle in admirable form. [Oct 2002, p.106]

This unabashedly jolly outing manages to be both simultaneously charming and irritating. [Feb 2003, p.106]

An album largely split between moments of hushed intimacy and gonzoid rocksers that tend to pitch themselves between The Replacements, Tom Petty and -- presumably unwittingly -- U2 circa War. [Oct 2002, p.101]

While no disaster, the enterprise does smack of Vonda Shepard's coffee shop warbling. [Jan 2003, p.121]